Every holiday season, I observe two main patterns in the raw food world. At health food stores I encounter those who have been eating primarily raw food for a
number of years; they find it easy to make decisions on what to buy, and they know what they want to eat; whereas those who are new to the raw food diet may
find it challenging to maintain resolve unless they have good ideas for raw recipes and treats.

In my family, we also have our favorite holiday dishes. I call them holiday dishes because they are more festive and take a little longer to prepare. After
each holiday we promise ourselves that we will keep making them, but we usually procrastinate until the next special occasion. Curiously, every member of my
family is good at something different. Igor makes the best crackers. Valya knows how to make delicious nori sticks filled with sunflower seed cheese. Sergei
is a master of scrumptious salads, and is skilled in quickly preparing healthy treats. I, of course, always chase everyone with my green smoothies.

Over the years, everyone in my family has learned how to prepare a delicious meal out of whatever is available in the local store, or even out of what we find
in our kitchen cupboards.

Our menu during the holidays no longer differs much from the rest of the year. However, during the first years of our raw life, we had to put a lot of effort
into handling the holiday season. I remember not guessing correctly how much of each ingredient to purchase, and ended up having too much of certain items and
not enough of others. For example, I remember coming to the store with a list of ingredients for recipes which required such unheard-of things as half of a
Madagascar vanilla bean, or one teaspoon of Japanese agar-agar, or a tablespoon of Himalayan apricot kernel oil, or even worse some “geekama and kweenowa”.

The following tips have helped my family in the past:

Order in bulk the best seasonal fruit, such as persimmons, pomegranates, cherimoyas, sapotes, and of course mandarin oranges;

Prepare delicious crackers ahead of time, and store them in storage containers in the fridge;
Prepare enough live garden burger pate;

Prepare enough live garden burger pate; I usually prepared two or three quarts, planning on dehydrating the leftovers; however, with lots of guests in and out,
there is usually nothing left. Just spread garden burger on a cracker and decorate with herbs and tomatoes; it is always a delicious, quick, and filling snack;

Purchase several pounds of bananas, wait till they are perfectly ripe, then peel and freeze them in Ziploc bags. When put through a Champion juicer, frozen
bananas quickly turn into a delicious ice cream;

Prepare your own trail mix and place it in a decorative dish on the table;

Have a variety of raw organic nuts on hand for preparing delicious nut milks

For more festive recipes I recommend the following personally tested sources of recipes: